Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
( M AY 2 0 1 6 )
1. The text of this report was written in the first instance by the
tion practice, the text was then edited by the staff and, as revised with
with the colleges administration. In fall 2015, the full-time faculty also
chapter posted on its blog a letter it had sent to the president and board
board of the College of Saint Rose, the AAUP chapter, and other per-
sons directly concerned. This final report has been prepared for publica-
The College of Saint Rose have signed cards stating that they want the
tion in light of the responses received and with the editorial assistance
of the staff.
Academic Freedom and Tenure: The College of Saint Rose (New York)
II.Events of Concern
Academic Freedom and Tenure: The College of Saint Rose (New York)
4. The new policy created separate mass e-mail groups for faculty,
and National Louis University (2013) may find the phrase academic
send messages to each group; and the reply all function was dis-
students, the only two groups to which a faculty member could send
a message were the adjunct union and the full-time faculty. The only
has had a long history with Dr. Dickeson, dating back to 1984, when
authorized senders to the former group were the cochairs of the union,
and the only authorized senders to the latter group were the cochairs of
and new groups could be created only with the permission of the
of employment.
Academic Freedom and Tenure: The College of Saint Rose (New York)
Academic Freedom and Tenure: The College of Saint Rose (New York)
Academic Freedom and Tenure: The College of Saint Rose (New York)
to the colleges AAUP chapter (organized on September 2), including a financial donation and the October
30 Open Letter. In late October the president of the
new chapter contacted the AAUPs national office with
urgent news of the pending cuts and layoffs.
The Associations staff first conveyed the national
AAUPs concerns regarding the program discontinuance
and resulting appointment terminations to President
Stefanco by letter of December 23. After summarizing AAUP-recommended procedural standards set
forth in Regulations 4c (Financial Exigency) and
4d (Discontinuance of Program or Department
for Educational Reasons) of the Recommended
Institutional Regulations on Academic Freedom and
Tenure, the staffs letter stated, According to faculty
sources, the procedures employed to reach the decision
to terminate twenty-seven programs and, with them,
the appointments of twenty-three tenured and tenuretrack faculty members bore very little resemblance to
these AAUP-supported standards.
Referring to the presidents December 11 letter
to the college community, in which she wrote that
the deans, the presidents cabinet, and the board of
trustees have worked diligently to develop a balanced and thoughtful plan, the staff noted that the
absence of any mention of the facultys role was
significant. Referring to the presidents November
3 letter responding to the New York AAUP conferences Open Letter to the College of Saint Rose
Community, the staff pointed out that, while
President Stefanco had stated that the administration
and many faculty were surprised and distressed at Rep
Coms withdrawal from the SAPP process, she did
not mention the facultys stated reasons for directing
the committee to withdraw nor did she explain why
the administration declined to present its layoff plan
to the faculty for review and vote before presenting it
to the board of trustees for final adoption.
In closing, the staff informed the president that, in
order to provide the administration with ample opportunity to respond to the concerns conveyed in its letter,
Dr. Julie Schmid, the Associations executive director, had approved sending to the college two AAUP
leaders versed in the applicable AAUP-supported standards to conduct an inquiry. These consultants,
the staff wrote, would interview the president, other
members of her administration designated by her,
members of the governing board, faculty leaders, and
AAUP chapter officers. Their charge, the staff continued, was to prepare a report for Dr. Schmid and
other responsible AAUP staff members that would be
Academic Freedom and Tenure: The College of Saint Rose (New York)
and the dean alone rather than a faculty committee judged the faculty
member qualified for the new position they offered her. Second, the
faculty members status is unclear. She would appear to occupy two
positions simultaneously: the one from which she will be terminated
effective December 29, 2016, and the one that she was offered (and
subsequently accepted), which retains her as a tenured member of the
faculty. Finally, we find it illustrative of the rushed nature of decision
Academic Freedom and Tenure: The College of Saint Rose (New York)
Five issues of central interest to the AAUP are presented and analyzed below.
A.AAUP Regulations on Financial Exigency and
Program Discontinuance
By early April, word came that four additional laid off faculty mem-
bers had received similar offers of reinstatement because of retirements or resignations in their departments.
Academic Freedom and Tenure: The College of Saint Rose (New York)
academic programs such as computer science, psychology, criminal justice, and music industry. The Trustees
have a duty to shift financial support to the programs
that are in highest demand among our students. The
administration, however, did not present detailed
evidence to the faculty supporting any of these claims
and did not mention specific programs until the cuts
were announced. The administration and boards
simple repetition of undocumented claims regarding
shifts in student demand did not serve to demonstrate
that the program discontinuations were bona fide.
Many of the affected faculty members presented
evidence to this committee that their programs were
healthy in terms of enrollment. One faculty member,
armed with longitudinal data from the last ten years,
demonstrated that, while the number of majors in his
program had not increased, it had also not decreased.
What changed, he asked, from ten years ago that
lands us on the chopping block now? A number
of other affected faculty members told us that their
classes were full and that their departments had not
seen any decline in majors.
Faculty members in the Lally School of Education
asserted that the colleges accounting practices had
deflated their enrollment numbers. Because certifications to teach general education or special education
are tied to a students major, students working toward
their teaching certificationsand therefore taking
coursework in the School of Educationwere coded
(or counted) by the college under their major programs
rather than under education. As a result, in the words
of one faculty member, the data used by the administration dont reflect the reality of the school.
Finally, several faculty members pointed out that
the program eliminations were inexplicably based on
the previous years enrollment numbers rather than on
data from fall 2015, which saw the largest incoming
class in the colleges history. It was not an unexpected
class size. In a May 18 e-mail message containing an
overview of the same days finance convocation, for
example, President Stefanco stated that enrollment
numbers for the Fall look strong. In a July 10 e-mail
update to the campus community, she provided the
details: We received more than 6,000 applications
for the first-year class, the most the college has ever
received. The size of our first-year class is the highest
it has ever been with 673 first-year student deposits.
Surely, the faculty members with whom we spoke suggested, if the decisions had been based on the current
years historically high enrollment figure, far fewer
programs would have been cut.
If the program discontinuations had been demonstrably bona fideand, again, evidence indicates
the oppositethe process by which any resulting
appointment terminations were carried out should
have been governed by Regulation 4d. In the view of
this committee, the process that was actually followed
departed significantly from the provisions of that regulation. Regulation 4d(1) provides that [t]he decision
to discontinue formally a program or department of
instruction will be based essentially upon educational
considerations, as determined primarily by the faculty
as a whole or an appropriate committee thereof, noting that [e]ducational considerations do not include
cyclical or temporary variations in enrollment. They
must reflect long-range judgments that the educational
mission of the institution as a whole will be enhanced
by the discontinuance.
According to the administration, enrollment trends,
not educational considerations, drove the academic
program eliminations. President Stefancos August
26 e-mail message to Rep Com stated that because
of continuing enrollment declines since 2008, the
College is beginning the process of academic program
prioritization and consequent reductions in faculty
(emphasis added). An e-mail message of the same day
from Provost Salavitabar to the faculty stated that
the Colleges enrollment has declined . . . [and] the
College is beginning the necessary process of academic
program prioritization and reductions (emphasis
added). The December 11 announcement of the cuts
published on the college website read: In identifying
programs for reduction or elimination and identifying reduction of faculty, the Board of Trustees took
into account enrollment levels and trends (emphasis
added). Such communications make clear that the
administrations decisions did not reflect long-range
judgments that the educational mission of the institution as a whole [would] be enhanced by the program
closures, as stipulated by Regulation 4d(1).
The administration initiated the SAPP process itself
in direct response to enrollment variations. President
Stefancos September 2 e-mail message to the faculty
(quoted earlier) outlined SAPPs three goals: to identify
existing academic areas where new investment was
needed to meet increased student demand, to identify
areas of high market demand for investment in
new programs, and to identify existing areas with
diminished student demand. Each of these goals and,
therefore, the entire process were predicated on
temporary shifts in student demandan approach
that is not permissible under 4d(1).
9
Academic Freedom and Tenure: The College of Saint Rose (New York)
being considered for discontinuance, much less provided an opportunity to respond. The tenured and
tenure-track (but not the part-time) faculty was invited
to participate in the deliberations but voted against
doing so, a decision to be discussed in detail further on
in this report.
Finally, Regulation 4d(3) provides that, [b]efore
the administration issues notice to a faculty member
of its intention to terminate an appointment because
of formal discontinuance of a program or department of instruction, the institution will make every
effort to place the faculty member in another suitable
position. The administration made no such effort in
behalf of any of the affected faculty members interviewed by this committee.
In sum, the administration did not declare that the
college was in a state of financial exigency, nor did
it demonstrate that any of the program discontinuations was bona fide. Even if it had so demonstrated, it
nevertheless failed to follow the procedures outlined
in Regulations 4d(1) through 4d(3) for discontinuing programs and terminating faculty appointments.
Because the administrations decisions were based on
neither of the two extraordinary conditions set forth
in Regulations 4c and 4d allowing appointments to be
terminated for reasons other than cause, we conclude
that the administration terminated the appointments
of twenty-three tenured and tenure-track faculty members in direct contravention of AAUP-recommended
principles and procedural standards.
B.Shared Governance
Academic Freedom and Tenure: The College of Saint Rose (New York)
exceptional circumstances and for reasons communicated to the faculty. The faculty manuals Shared
Governance Document: Principles and Processes
provides a flowchart for decisions related to the termination of majors and programs that is consistent with
the Statement on Government: the faculty and two
elected faculty committees have primary responsibility for such decisions, subject to the approval of the
president and the vice president for academic affairs
(VPAA). The process is as follows:
1. I nput: Discipline faculty and Deans routinely
monitor the overall viability of majors and programs relative to such key factors as enrollment
trends and the support capacity
2. Recommender: Discipline faculty propose the
termination of majors or programs and, in some
cases, seek approval at the School level, before
making a recommendation to UAC or GAC
as appropriate8
3. Decision Maker: In the case of Undergraduate
majors and programs, faculty act in the
role of decision makers based upon UAC
recommendations, and subject to final approval
by the President/VPAA. GAC acts in the role of
decision maker in the case of graduate majors
and programs subject to final approval by the
President/VPAA
4. Final Approval: VPAA & President
This is clearly a faculty-driven process. Discipline
faculty propose program and major termination;
their recommendations go to either the UAC or the
GAC. The decision makers are the faculty as a
whole, for undergraduate majors and programs, and
the GAC, for graduate majors and programs. Neither
the president nor the vice president for academic
affairs has any role in academic program discontinuance other than final approval of the decisions made
by either the faculty as a whole or the GAC.
The administration did not follow this process
in the least. None of the program eliminations was
proposed by the faculty. The faculty did not make
Similarly, the GACs membership includes the vice president for academic affairs (as chair), a full-time graduate faculty member from each
in December when the president had informed Rep Com of the aca-
of the GAC.
11
Academic Freedom and Tenure: The College of Saint Rose (New York)
Academic Freedom and Tenure: The College of Saint Rose (New York)
Along with the need for meaningful faculty involvement in the decision-making process that leads to
termination of appointments, the other critical component of Regulation 4d is the provision of academic
due process through faculty hearing procedures.
Regulation 4d(4) requires affordance of an on-therecord adjudicative hearing before an elected faculty
body similar in essential respects to what the AAUP
recommends for dismissal (as set forth in Regulation
5 of the Recommended Institutional Regulations).
In such a hearing, the burden of proof rests with the
administration on all issueswith the sole exception
of a decision to discontinue a program or department
that was made by the faculty, an exception obviously
inapplicable in this case. The hearing affords affected
faculty members the opportunity to challenge the
adverse action before an elected body of faculty peers,
responsible for rendering judgment on allegations that
the decision to terminate their programs and positions
was reached improperly or was based on impermissible considerations, such as those implicating principles
of academic freedom.
Under section E, Contingency Planning and
Retrenchment, of the faculty manual, the Faculty
Review Committee (FRC) is charged with hearing appeals of layoff. In its December 23 letter to
President Stefanco, the staff urged the FRC to
employ procedures set forth in Regulations 4c(3) or
4d(4) when handling any appeals. While this investigating committee was unable to ascertain the extent
to which the FRC will adhere to Regulation 4d(4), we
do note that the process, as outlined in article II of the
FRC constitution, includes a digitally recorded hearing
with the aggrieved faculty member and that the FRC is
an elected faculty body.
The appeals process, however, seemed to have
gotten off to a bumpy start. On January 9 Interim
Provost Schirmer wrote the FRC to request that
four of its five members recuse themselves, effective immediately. Under the committees bylaws, the
administration or the faculty member is allowed to
challenge members of the committee for personal
prejudice. The interim provost asserted that because
three members of the committee had posted critical
13
Academic Freedom and Tenure: The College of Saint Rose (New York)
Academic Freedom and Tenure: The College of Saint Rose (New York)
enrollments for nearly a decade, resulting in a $9 million deficit, a significant amount of debt, and downgrades in credit ratings, one might reasonably question
the adequacy of the governing board and administrations stewardship. When the results also include mass
layoffs of tenured and tenure-track faculty members,
the elimination of long-standing academic programs,
and, ultimately, a majority expression by the faculty of
no confidence in the president, one must question it.
President Stefanco declined to allow anyone in
her administration to speak with this committee.
Chair Calogero declined to answer four questions we
submitted to her in writing, forwarding them instead
to the presidents chief of staff, who informed us that
no one on the board would answer any of our questions.10 However, two former administrative officers
did agree to provide answers in writing. We rely on
10. The questions that Chair Calogero declined to answer were the
following:
1. According to a May 2015 Albany Times Union story, The College of
Saint Roses modest surplus had become a structural deficit
by 2010. President Carolyn Stefanco was quoted in that story as
follows: Saint Rose has been in this situation since the [2008] recession, where we have not made changes in our financial model,
when other institutions have been doing this routinely. She
added: We just have not been attentive. We would benefit from
your perspective, as a trustee since 2007, on President Stefancos
assessment. We would be particularly interested to learn of the
nature of the Colleges financial planning, at both the board and
administrative levels, during your tenure on the board.
2. On a similar note, President Stefancos May 18 e-mail overview
of her finance convocation of the same day reads in relevant part:
The College now employs accounting best practices and we
have fully addressed the previous practice, used for many years,
of putting expenses in unrelated budget lines. Briefly, we now
properly reflect department expenses in the appropriate lines in
our bookkeeping and include depreciation on our balance sheet.
Any clarifications or explanations you are able to offer regarding
the longstanding previous practice to which President Stefanco
refers would be most helpful.
3. By all accounts, student enrollment at the college began declining
in 2008. During your tenure as a trustee, to what extent and in
what specific ways did the board address the downward enroll-
medium-grade and subject to moderate credit risk and as such may pos-
15
Academic Freedom and Tenure: The College of Saint Rose (New York)
5. T
he program eliminations and faculty layoffs
were ultimately the result of a lack of responsible
stewardship at the board and presidential
levels, leading to the facultys recent vote of no
confidence.12
VI.Conclusions
This was a critical time for the College as it faced financial chal-
lenges that needed to be addressed without delay. Your investigatorsand unfortunately a subset of our facultyseem to have little
understanding of the perils that face the College as a tuition dependent institution of higher education today. As was true at the College
this fall, sometimes action is required on a shorter timeline than we
all would like. We are saddened by each and every faculty member
who received a layoff notice. The College has already reinstated five
faculty without an adverse budget impact. Further, the information
provided in the draft report about the appeals process is premature.
The College provided numerous documents in response to the
Faculty Review Committees (FRC) requests and we have been fully
engaged and involved as contemplated by the Faculty Manual.
tions and decisions that the faculty individually and/or through faculty
committees effectively make, regarding academic programs, the
curriculum, and individual graduate student admission decisions, to
name just a few. The draft also ignores that the leadership of the
AAUP chapter on campus has attempted to use the Colleges circumstances to pursue their own agenda and to try and persuade other
faculty members to join with them.
fiscally strong for our students for years to come. This requires
investment in new programs of interest and other ways to grow
enrollment. We continue to look to our faculty to be a part of this
process with the administration.
Academic Freedom and Tenure: The College of Saint Rose (New York)
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
17